Permission Granted

For as long as I can remember, I have found it much easier to be kinder to others than to myself. That old saying, “You can’t love someone until you love yourself”, used to confound me, because while I was my own worst enemy, I often was everyone else’s best friend. Then, there is the classic twist on this saying that goes, “No-one will love you until you love yourself”. Again, I was baffled by this statement, because even when I wallowed in self-loathing, I knew I had family and friends who loved me. So, I believed that somehow these two schools of thought did not apply to me. Then, my world imploded three years ago, and as I began to recover and heal from the depression and anxiety, I also began to change my mind about the notion of self-kindness. Suddenly, being kind to myself mattered…